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Statue of Christ

A three metre concrete Christ standing on white sand at 35 m off Qawra Point, arms open and face tilted to the surface, with a rock arch, a seventeenth century anchor and the bow of the Imperial Eagle all within a few fin kicks.

Deep / Experienced🚢 Wreck35 mBoat divePopularity: mediumAlso called Christ of the Sailors, Christ of the Seafarers, Jesus of Qawra, Kristu l-Bahhar, Kristu l-Baħar, Kristu tal-Bahhara, Kristu tal-Baħħara
Plan this dive

Sea conditions

86

Excellent right now

Flat, sheltered and calm

Forecast for the site, updated 01:45 AM

Waves
0.4 m
from ESE
Wind
n/a
Swell
0.4 m
5 s period
Sea temp
29 °C

Next 7 days

Today🌤️85 0.4 m
0 N
Sat🌤️90 0.3 m
0 N
Sun🌤️97 0.2 m
0 N
Mon🌤️100 0.1 m
0 N
Tue🌤️89 0.4 m
0 N
Wed🌤️52 0.9 m
0 N
Thu🌤️54 0.9 m
0 N

Exposed to wind and swell from: N (0°), NE (45°), E (90°), SE (135°), NW (315°). An offshore site with no shelter to speak of. Boats cancel it in anything with north or east in the forecast, and the swell that wraps round Qawra Point can make the surface work unpleasant even when the wind is light. Visibility is usually good, often twenty metres or better, which is the whole reason the statue was moved here. Best season: May to November, with the warmest water and steadiest boat days from June to October.

The dive

You find him the way everyone describes it and it still lands: a pale figure appearing out of the blue at thirty five metres, standing in a bowl of rock with white sand around his feet. The face is turned up towards the light and the divers, the arms are out, and the whole thing is set in a natural amphitheatre that frames it better than any placement committee could have managed.

Nobody dives this alone. A shallow valley in the reef runs from the statue to the bow of the Imperial Eagle about thirty metres away, so the standard outing is statue first, ferry second, or the reverse depending on where the skipper drops you. Off to one side there is an arch cut through the reef wall, and outside it a big old anchor thought to date from the sixteen hundreds, quietly the most historic object on the site.

This is a proper deep dive and the depth is not negotiable. Thirty five metres on the sand, a hard bottom time limit and a boat ride each way. Bring a torch, because at that depth the concrete reads grey until you light it, and the reds on the wreck only wake up under a beam.

  • A three metre Christ standing on white sand at 35 m, blessed by a Pope in 1990
  • The short valley swim from the statue to the bow of the Imperial Eagle
  • A rock arch with a seventeenth century anchor lying just outside it
  • Reliably clear water inside the Qawra marine conservation area
  • Two headline attractions, one bottom time, if you plan the gas properly

Typical plan

Descend the shot to the reef top around twenty metres, then follow the wall down into the amphitheatre and give the statue five or six minutes with a torch. Take the valley across to the Imperial Eagle bow at about thirty eight metres, work the deck back up to thirty two, and start your ascent along the reef so the shallow part of the profile happens over something worth looking at. Around twenty minutes of bottom time on air is typical and already generates deco, which is why nitrox 28 to 32 and a twinset or a slung deco cylinder are the sensible choices here. Deploy a DSMB for the boat before you leave the reef.

What the bottom looks like

0153142m🤿12345678220 m from entry
  1. 1Top of Qawra Reef22 m deep · 18 m out
  2. 2Rock amphitheatre around the statue33 m deep · 35 m out
  3. 3Kristu tal-Baħħara, 3 m concrete Christ on white sand35 m deep · 42 m out
  4. 4Natural arch through the reef wall34 m deep · 55 m out
  5. 5Large anchor, thought to be seventeenth century35 m deep · 62 m out
  6. 6Bow of the MV Imperial Eagle37 m deep · 80 m out
  7. 7Imperial Eagle deck and superstructure32 m deep · 105 m out
  8. 8Sand beside the wreck's hull42 m deep · 120 m out
Cartoon cross-section along the usual route from the boat drop. Depths are approximate.

White sand between blocky limestone reef, with the wreck sitting upright on that sand just beyond the statue's bowl.

Who you might meet

Getting in and staying safe

Boat only, roughly half a kilometre off Qawra Point. Dive boats leave from Bugibba, Qawra and St Paul's Bay and the run takes a few minutes, with RIB trips also coming down from Mellieha. Operators normally shot the site or use a fixed line, and because the reef top is well below the surface there is nothing to aim at visually. Toilets, cafes and parking are all back on the Qawra promenade, not at the site.

  • Depth: 35 m at the statue and more on the wreck sand, so decompression creeps up fast
  • Narcosis and gas consumption at depth, easy to underestimate on a first visit
  • Current across the open reef, sometimes enough to make the swim to the wreck hard work
  • Boat traffic above, a busy corner in summer with dive boats and pleasure craft
  • Poor light on the statue, a torch is close to essential
  • Silt inside the Imperial Eagle if you penetrate
  • Long surface interval planning if you want a meaningful second dive

A bit of history

The statue is the work of Maltese sculptor Alfred Camilleri Cauchi, cast in concrete and fibreglass so it would hold its shape in cold salt water, and modelled on the Cristo degli Abissi at San Fruttuoso near Genoa. It was commissioned to mark Pope John Paul II's first visit to Malta and lowered to the seabed off St Paul's Island on 26 May 1990, in the Pope's presence and with his blessing, the only underwater statue he ever blessed. Visibility at that first site deteriorated over the following decade and divers stopped coming, so on 17 May 2000 it was lifted and resunk off Qawra Point inside the marine park, next to the MV Imperial Eagle, a forty five metre Malta to Gozo ferry scuttled there in July 1999. For the statue's twenty fifth anniversary it was professionally cleaned and re-blessed by Archbishop Charles Scicluna on 31 May 2015, when a brass commemorative plaque was fixed to its base.

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Further reading: Wikipedia: Kristu tal-Baħħara · Malta Dive Sites: Statue of Christ · PADI: Imperial Eagle and Statue of Christ · DiveBoat Malta: Statue of Christ · Seashell Dive Centre: Imperial Eagle and Jesus Statue